Engaging students in research can lead to increased wellbeing
In the inaugural issue of LearningWell magazine, “Research and Wellbeing at UMaine,” describes a unique first-year experiential learning program that involves young students in academic research, a practice typically reserved for their senior peers. According to the article, the aim is twofold: to develop a research mindset early on in a student’s academic journey; and to create a sense of belonging as well as agency, which are both proven to increase wellbeing.
“We know that engaging in research makes you a part of something bigger, something important, and it allows you to form relationships with peers and professors who are in this with you,” said John Volin, executive vice president for Academic Affairs and provost at UMaine, who spearheaded the effort. “Why wouldn’t we want students to experience this right as they enter college?”
Mental and Behavioral Health
In an op-ed in Inside Higher Ed, Philip J. Rosenbaum, director of counseling and psychological services at Haverford College, and Richard E. Webb, the former director of CAPS at Haverford, react to the recent position paper by the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD) on counselor burnout, calling it an “untenable situation for the field of college counseling.” They refer to the “moral injury” that has been inflicted upon the field, as counselors had to make decisions about how to meet demand that have “continually compromised the quality and efficacy of the clinical care that most of us went into counseling to provide in the first place and that we know to be most effective.” They call for the “means to create meaningful and sustainable working environments once again, ones in which counselors could not only provide the therapy we know to be most effective but also be widely seen as valued thought partners on campus.” They assert that it will require considerable investments, including financial investments, in counseling centers.
In a spring Student Voice survey from Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse, respondents said that to reduce stress, colleges should bolster and promote mental health services and offer students more financial assistance.
In response to the recent Tyton Partners survey showing that 35% of student respondents were unaware of available critical support services on their campus, the Lumina Foundation released recommendations for colleges including: meeting students where they are to raise awareness of student services; bolstering a sense of belonging for students who may have difficulty making friends and building positive relationships; having a diverse set of advisors; and creating a holistic care and support system for students.
Last week, President Biden announced a new proposed rule that would ensure mental health benefits on private insurance plans more closely mirror physical health benefits. The rule would reinforce the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) by requiring insurance providers to update health plans “to make sure people have equivalent access between their mental health and medical benefits.”
A new study shows that integrating a therapy dog into the classroom improved stress, anxiety, and happiness for nursing students.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling against race-conscious admissions, trustees for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill voted to bar the consideration of race in admissions and hiring. The resolution also said that the university must not adopt “proxies premised upon race-based preferences in hiring or admissions,” such as through admissions essays.
A recent Brookings Institution policy brief examines research showing that Black, Hispanic, American Indian, and Alaska Native students were less likely than their peers to be enrolled in high-earning majors, particularly STEM majors. The brief points to institutional change-of-major policies, such as requiring an application for some departments, grade point average requirements within introductory courses, or an overall GPA threshold, as possible causes.
The New York Times’ podcast The Daily highlights the new major study revealing the extent to which elite college’s admissions systematically favor the rich. David Leonhardt, senior writer for The Times and The Morning, walks through the data and explains why the study is fueling calls to abandon longstanding practices like legacy admissions.
NPR’s Morning Edition covers the recent upheavals in higher education admissions, highlighting the new push to end “legacy admissions.” In an interview, Ivory Toldson, the national director of Education Innovation and Research at the NAACP, said that legacy admissions compromise a university’s ability to create a diverse student body.
The Washington Post and New York Times dive into the legacy admissions “dilemma,” with the Post citing their analysis that found that more than 100 schools consider alumni-applicant relationships in admissions decisions and noting that public opinion is firmly against the practice (About 75 percent of Americans oppose legacy preferences, according to a 2022 Pew Research Center poll.) The Times notes that colleges defend legacy admissions as helpful to maintaining financial support for their institutions and fostering community bonds.
PBS NewsHour covers the White House Briefing in which White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, referring to the Education Department’s new investigation of the legacy admissions at Harvard, said that President Biden has “made clear that legacy admissions hold back our ability to build diverse student bodies.” Lawyers for Civil Rights, a nonprofit based in Boston, which filed the initial complaint with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, released a statement saying “We are gratified that the Department of Education has acted swiftly to open this investigation. Harvard should follow the lead of a growing number of colleges and universities—including Amherst, MIT, Johns Hopkins, the University of California, and most recently Wesleyan—and voluntarily abandon these unfair and undeserved preferences.”
Congressional Democrats announced they are reintroducing a bill that would ban colleges from giving preference in admissions to children of alumni and donors.
A new report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that more than half of the 2023 graduating class had held an internship position, but minority and female students are underrepresented in both paid and unpaid internships. “Among men who took part in an internship, more than three-quarters (76.4%) had paid internships; among women taking part in internships, slightly over half (51.5%) were paid,” Diverse Education reports.
The Chronicle highlights a new report from the Century Foundation that asserts that states have deprived Black land-grant universities of funding as they have supported predominantly white land grants. The Century Foundation, a progressive think tank, has offered a series of policy recommendations for the 2023 Farm Bill, a package of legislation that provides federal dollars to all land-grant colleges, to reduce disparities. These recommendations include: phasing out the waiver for dollar-for-dollar state matching of federal research money for 19 historically Black institutions, mostly in the South, and $600 million in new “equity funding” for these colleges. It also recommends providing $100 million to expand student scholarships at those 19 HBCUs.
College Affordability
Congressmen are plugging a legislative proposal to lower costs for college and hold them accountable for poor outcomes. Democrats have endorsed the Biden administration’s regulatory plan that would end federal funding for career programs that don’t meet a debt-to-earnings ratio, called gainful employment. Republicans have introduced the Promoting Employment and Lifelong Learning (PELL) Act, which would authorize Pell Grants for short-term academic programs and ensure “students and taxpayers receive a positive return on investment within three years or less.”
The National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, which is conducted every three or four years by a wing of the U.S. Department of Education, showed that almost 72% of undergraduates received some form of financial aid in the 2019-20 academic year. On average, undergraduates received $14,100 in aid.
Student Success
A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows that the persistence rate among first-year college students has returned to pre-pandemic levels. Of first-year students who enrolled in fall 2021, 75.7% returned to college by the following year, the same average seen among the 2016, 2017, and 2018 freshman classes.
According to FairTest, a group that advocates for limited application of entrance exams, more than 1,900 U.S. colleges and universities are not requiring SAT or ACT scores for admissions for fall 2024. Opponents of entrance exams like the SAT say they perpetuate inequities in higher ed, as applicants from historically marginalized groups don’t have access to the same tutoring services as wealthy students.
Hazing
Experts on hazing prevention are hoping that the backlash to the hazing reports within the Northwestern sports programs could lead to a shift in how colleges and universities respond to incidents on their campuses. The reports of hazing, bullying, and toxicity at Northwestern have resulted in the terminations of two head coaches and a series of lawsuits filed against the university. “[My hope] is that there’s a bigger shift in these institutions, within these programs that don’t tolerate this conduct,” Shiwali Patel, senior counsel and director of justice for student survivors at the National Women’s Law Center, told NPR.
